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The Evil Dead (1981)
The Evil Dead (originally titled 'The Book of the Dead') is a 1981 American low-budget horror movie written, executive produced and directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell even as he is executive producing the film alongside Raimi and Robert Tapert, Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The Evil Dead focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area. After they find an audiotape that releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem. Raimi and the cast produced the short film Within the Woods as a "prototype" to build the interest of potential investors, which secured Raimi US$90,000 to produce The Evil Dead. The film was shot on location in a remote cabin located in Morristown, Tennessee, in a difficult filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the majority of the cast and crew. Plot Five friends go up to a cabin in the woods, where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find a tome called the "Necronomicon", Book of the Dead, and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens are possessed. With only one remaining, it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead. Cast *Bruce Campbell as Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams *Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl *Richard DeManincor as Scott *Betsy Baker as Linda *Theresa Tilly as Shelly Reception The film met positive reviews from critics. It holds a rating of 98% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It has a rating of 7,6/10 on IMDb. Sequels The film has spawned a media franchise, beginning with two sequels written and directed by Raimi, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), as well as video games and comic books. The film's protagonist Ash Williams (Campbell) is regarded as a cult icon. The fourth film serving as both a reboot and a remake, even as a loose continuation, titled Evil Dead was released in Spring in the year 2013, with Raimi co-producing the film alongside Campbell and 'the trilogy's producer Tapert. Home video releases The first VHS release of The Evil Dead was by Thorn EMI in 1983, and Thorn's successor company HBO/Cannon Video later repackaged the film. Congress Video, a company notable for public-domain films, issued their version in 1989. The resurgence of The Evil Dead in the home-video market came through two companies that restored the film from its negatives and issued special editions in 1998: Anchor Bay Entertainment on VHS, and Elite Entertainment on laserdisc. Anchor Bay was responsible for the film's first DVD release in 1999, and between them, Elite and Anchor Bay have released six different DVD versions of The Evil Dead, most notably a 2002 "Book Of The Dead" edition, packaged in a latex replica of the Necronomicon sculpted by Tom Sullivan. The film's high-definition debut was in a 2010 Blu-ray. DVD editions *R0 Collectors Edition USA (Elite Entertainment) *R0 Special Edition ('Book Of The Dead') USA (Anchor Bay) *R0 Australia (Big Sky Video) *R1 Special Edition USA (Anchor Bay) *R2 France (TF1 Video) *R2 Germany (Astro) *R2 Germany (CMV Laservision) *R2 UK (Anchor Bay) *R2 UK 'The Evil Dead Trilogy' Box Set (Anchor Bay) *R2 Limited Edition ('Book Of The Dead') UK (Anchor Bay) *R2 Japan (JVD 20th Anniversary Collection 2-Disc) *R2 Greece (Audio Visual) *R2 Spain (Manga Films) *R2 Holland (A-film) Taglines *They got up on the wrong side of the grave. *Can They Be Stopped? *The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror Motion Picture Rating Rated NC-17 for substantial graphic horror violence and gore. Trivia *The original script called for all the characters to be smoking marijuana when they are first listening to the tape. The actors decided to try this for real, and the entire scene had to be later re-shot due to their uncontrollable behavior. *During the scene where Ash is about to cut up his girlfriend with a chainsaw, Bruce Campbell actually had to use a real chainsaw and hold it up to the actress's chest. You can see on the close-up of Linda's neck (looking at the necklace) that her pulse is racing. *The magnifying glass necklace was originally intended to be a plot point by focusing the sunlight to burn the Book of the Dead, but it was decided after shooting began that this wasn't going to work, so its actual use in the film was a desperate attempt to keep it relevant since so much film time had been spent on it already. *During Ash's fighting scene with the possessed Scott, after gouging out Scotts eyeballs Ash yanks something out of Scott's jeans and blood begins to flow. Many have believed that Ash was yanking out a "reproductive organ" based on its shape and position. However, what Ash pulled out was a small branch gouged into Scott's leg after he was beaten savagely by the trees. Trailer Category:Films Category:1981 films Category:English-language films Category:American horror films Category:Splatter Category:Films with Demons Category:Independent films Category:Stop-motion animated films Category:Supernatural horror films Category:1980s